14
votes
Has the conception of prepositions broadened?
This broadened conception of a preposition has a long history, but its recent popularity is thanks to its appearance in Huddleston & Pullum's The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002). ...
- 19.6k
12
votes
Where is the subject in "as was traditional for unmarried women"?
Strange as it may sound, the subject of "was" is, in the opinion of many renowned grammarians (please read N.B. below), the relative pronoun "as". In that sentence, "as" is not a conjunction but a ...
- 3,200
12
votes
Where is the subject in "as was traditional for unmarried women"?
As __ was traditional for unmarried women, Jane lived at home her entire life.
It has no overt subject.
The expression in bold is an adjunct of comparison with the preposition "as" as head. The ...
- 13.5k
11
votes
Accepted
The correct negative form (past participle)
Both ways are grammatical. In some cases, one form will be more idiomatic than another form, but there is no general rule as to which one you should use.
All the following sentences are correct:
Our ...
- 90.3k
10
votes
Clause structure of "Five'll get you ten, this rain stops in three minutes."
You have a main clause with a zero-that that-clause (warning: grammar terms vary).
Five’ll get you ten is an idiom meaning chances are good.
Five’ll get you ten [that] this rain stops in three ...
- 19.7k
9
votes
Where is the subject in "as was traditional for unmarried women"?
The subject of "was" is apparently missing. This is a complex sentence, so not all parts have to have all the elements of a main clause. The main clause of the sentence is the second part, "Jane lived ...
- 84.5k
7
votes
Is "Do this, please" an imperative sentence?
Short answer (tl;dr)
In terms of illocutionary force, or type of speech act, the addition of the word please will change the sentence from an order to a polite request (all other things being equal).
...
- 48.7k
6
votes
Is "That is so cheap!?" an exclamative?
It can be tricky in this area if we do not nail down two distinct ideas. On the one hand we have the illocutionary force of an utterance. So, for example, if I say:
You went there on Thursday?
with ...
- 48.7k
6
votes
Types of Clause
A clause is a sentence constituent that has a subject phrase and a verb phrase.
What is called in grammar school a "simple sentence" is just one clause, with just one subject phrase and one ...
- 109k
5
votes
Do I need a comma in this sentence?
I'm not entirely sure I understand the exact question, but:
"are these alcohol shakes or something else?"
If you capitalize the first letter of the sentence, it's perfectly fine. It does ...
- 883
5
votes
Accepted
Subordinate clause types/functions
She begged him [not to leave her].
The colonel commanded his men [to charge].
How can we encourage a baby [to use that toy properly].
Yes, the bracketed clauses are subordinate, but they are not ...
- 13.5k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the direct object of "I imagined" in the context "as I imagined would be the case"? (i.e. I imagined what?)
'I imagined' does not have a direct object here, instead 'imagined' allows the clause that follows '___ would be the case' where there is a gap in the subject position. The whole construction headed ...
- 11.1k
5
votes
Types of Clause
Types of clause can first be categorised as follows:
Declarative - making a statement [You are very tactful.]
Closed interrogative - asking a closed question [Are you very tactful?]
Open interrogative ...
- 13.5k
4
votes
What is the name of this grammatical phenomenon?
As a figure of speech, this is called anacoluthon—when you break the grammatical structure of a sentence and begin a new construction or a fragment of a construction. This Greek word means "that which ...
4
votes
Wh-clause after a preposition
In my experience, it is speak to, not speak for, and yes, it can be used with an interrogative content clause:
The constant clashes between locals and immigrants speak to how difficult it is to ...
- 15.5k
4
votes
Is it correct to use "...and as a result,..." to link two independent clauses? Is the comma after "result" necessary?
The usage you have shown is incorrect.
Anything parenthetical, i.e. anything that can be optionally dropped, needs to be surrounded by commas. In this case there should be a comma after the "and" in ...
- 447
4
votes
What is the merit of calling a verb phrase a clause?
Well, this is a question about grammatical terminology, not about grammar, or English grammar, as I understand it. I've looked at a bit of the prior discussion here, comments and answers, but I'm not ...
- 109k
4
votes
where to put the possessive "s" with an appositive parenthetical
There's nothing wrong with the possessive marker at the end. Compare The king of England's crown, where the -s is at the end of the noun group.
It does sound a bit more awkward if you have a whole ...
- 3,244
4
votes
Can I omit a subject in If-clauses?
This kind of ellipsis only works if the omission consists of the subject and a form of the verb 'to be' and the omitted subject appears in the main clause either as the subject or the object.
If (...
- 33.5k
4
votes
What is an example of "where" in an adverb clause?
[1] [Where I'm going] is none of your business.
[2] No one knows [where he is].
[3] It's interesting [where these things have come from].
[4] This is [where I want to be].
[5] This is the park [where ...
- 13.5k
4
votes
Constructions of the form 'He has committed I don't know how many crimes.'
Hyperextension of adjectives is not two or even three. They are longer phrases and sometimes even a full sentence used as a prepositioned adjective.
AKA multiple hyphen compound adjective
Also dealt ...
- 15.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Is it a noun clause or phrase when the nominal entity is modified by a determiner?
Your bag is in [your locker].
"Your locker" is not a clause but a noun phrase with the noun "locker" as head and the genitive pronoun "your" as determiner. Its function ...
- 13.5k
4
votes
The correct negative form (past participle)
Where there is the negated adjective, it is usually the idiomatic choice:
1 We complained but as usual our voices went unheard.
1' *We complained but as usual our voices went not heard.
(went ...
- 87.1k
4
votes
Clause structure of "Five'll get you ten, this rain stops in three minutes."
You could infer some hidden structure, such as an omitted subordinator. For example, you could take the comma to represent the word "that".
On the other hand, if you take the surface ...
- 7,930
3
votes
Would a comma go before an introductory phrase when a word such as "yesterday" goes before it?
All punctuation is a matter of style (and thus preference). There are some rules agreed-upon by style manuals, and two are in play here:
Place a comma after an introductory adverbial clause of ...
- 44.9k
3
votes
Accepted
I can't understand the two sentence from hackerone 《blog-How-To-Server-Side-Request-Forgery-SSRF》
The clauses are:
A cool pivot
to escalate the SSRF
to a Remote Code Execution (RCE)
is
by pushing asynchronous jobs
on(to) a Redis queue
that then get executed
by an ...
- 2,603
3
votes
Accepted
How very dare you!
It is strange, and jarring, for "very" to modify a verb, which is the joke here. Normally as an adverb, "very" is only an intensifier and only capable of modifying adjectives or other adverbs. As an ...
- 46
3
votes
"Jack believed that Bob said that Nancy saw Bill drove fast yesterday"?
Jack believed that Bob said that Nancy saw Bill drove fast yesterday.
Whether there is an error in this sentence or not depends on which meaning of see the writer intends to convey.
The verb see can ...
- 48.7k
3
votes
Participle phrase or participle clause? For my students please
A clause always has a verb, but that verb may be of two sorts:
a finite verb clause: one inflected for person, number, and tense
a non-finite verb clause: one that is NOT inflected for person, number,...
- 137k
3
votes
Accepted
"John was happy about being accepted as a team member." What part of speech is "accepted"?
There are two main types of passive, long passives and short passives:
Bob was arrested by the police. [long passive]
Bob was arrested. [short passive]
We can see from the examples above ...
- 48.7k
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